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Monday, June 22, 2009

study finds Great White Sharks are serial killers

A US led scientific study has amazingly found that Great White Sharks are serial killers.

The study used methods used in criminology to track serial killers and applied it to sharks. They found that like human serial killers, Great White’s operate within a confined area around an anchor point when hunting seals. The pattern was less prominent in younger sharks, suggesting that the trait is learned with age.

“Shark hunting patterns are extremely difficult to study and the work here will have important implications for our understanding of the ways in which predators hunt their prey.” Dr Steven Le Comber told The Sun.

Sadly the scientists did not set out to win an Ig Noble Award, but surely they’ll end up with a nomination.http://www.inquisitr.com/26889/great-moments-in-science-study-finds-great-white-sharks-are-serial-killers/

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Criminology Online.Com is being updated

www.criminologyonline.com is temporarily having server problem. I tried to contact the service provider but their site is also directing to the Plesk site. It seems the servers are closed for maintenance.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

New finding points way to foiling anthrax's tricks

“University of California, Berkeley, chemists have discovered a trick that anthrax bacteria use to make an end run around the body's defenses, but which may turn out to be their Achilles' heel. The UC Berkeley scientists, working with colleagues at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, uncovered the trick while studying how these deadly bacteria steal iron from their human hosts to grow and reproduce. Anthrax bacteria are known to produce two small molecules - bacillibactin and petrobactin - that snatch iron away from the human body's iron transporter molecules, called transferrin. These scavengers, or ‘siderophores,’ are essential to anthrax's ability to grow rapidly, especially after the spores are inhaled, though why the bacteria need two siderophores to do the job has been an enigma. The new study shows why anthrax bacteria require two siderophores working by two different mechanisms... [The] UC Berkeley team and the Seattle team are now exploring how their discovery could be used to diagnose or treat anthrax. The researchers published their findings Nov. 28 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their paper will appear in the Dec. 5 print edition.”(Media-Newswire, 30Nov06)http://media-newswire.com/release_1039850.html

Study Warns of 'Grave and Growing' Threat of Biological Weapons

Study Warns of 'Grave and Growing' Threat of Biological Weapons

“The Center for Strategic and International Studies released Wednesday the findings of its survey addressing the future use of biological weapons.” Since mid-October, the center polled about 340 current executive branch officials and members of Congress, as well as former senior government officials and nongovernmental experts, on how they perceived the threat of bioweapons. Only about 50 of those polled responded to the survey. However, the center's Senior Fellow Amy Smithson who designed the survey, says that overall, biological weapons are seen as a grave and growing threat, even compared to chemical and nuclear weapons. "Biological weapons are the most insidious, the most serious threat because they're cheap, they come from nature and the release scenario can be as simple as the subway," he said... According to the study, the best way to address the threat is through international safety measures as opposed to efforts by individual states.” (Voice of America; 29Nov06; Sean Maroney) http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-29-voa63.cfm

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Cannibal of Rothenburg

The Times January 17, 2006I wanted to eat him, not kill him, court is toldFrom Roger Boyes in Berlin ARMIN MEIWES, the so-called Cannibal of Rothenburg, described to a horrified courtroom yesterday how he lit candles and laid out a white tablecloth and his best cutlery to dine on the dismembered corpse of a German software specialist.“I wanted to eat him but not to kill him,” said Meiwes, 44. The computer technician was the first to speak in the retrial in Frankfurt of one of the most grisly criminal cases in modern Germany.The victim, Bernd-Jürgen Brandes, and his future killer met over the internet, which has triggered legal confusion. Until the creation of chat rooms, it was statistically almost impossible for a cannibal to meet a willing victim. Brandes’s willingness emerged yesterday as Meiwes’s main defence. He is serving an 8½-year jail term for manslaughter but an appeals court has ruled that there is sufficient evidence for a murder conviction.Meiwes, however, says that he assisted in a mercy killing. He told the court that he hoped his victim would either bleed to death or “jump out of a window” after he had cut off his penis. He tried to portray Brandes as suicidal.After laying the engineer on a butcher’s table, Meiwes stabbed him in the throat, but he said yesterday that he had been sure his victim was dead.However, a four-hour video recording of the butchery from a camera set up by Meiwes showed that Brandes was breathing shallowly before being stabbed. It will be the central piece of evidence in the retrial, expected to end in March. Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Crime and Suicide in Holland

Marieke's talk made me look into the crime statistics in Holland. Here are some of the findings from my previous notes.

In 2004, the Dutch government implemented heightened security measures in response to concerns of international Islamic extremist terrorist activity on Dutch soil. The November 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in Amsterdam has further increased concerns over Islamic extremist activity in The Netherlands. A number of people have been arrested in connection with van Gogh’s murder and related Islamic extremist activities, and the Dutch government remains on heightened alert.

According to the CIA, while the rate of violent crime in the Netherlands is low, tourists are often targeted for robbery. Visitors frequently fall prey to pickpockets, bag snatchers and other petty thieves. Never leave baggage or other valuables unattended.

There are frequent reports of thefts from specific areas. Within Amsterdam, thieves are very active in and around train and tram stations, the city center and public transport. More specifically, trains to and from SchipholAirport are considered to be high risk. Thieves often work in pairs; one distracts the victim, often by asking for directions, while the accomplice moves in on the victim's momentarily unguarded handbag, backpack, laptop or briefcase. The timing of these thefts usually coincides with train stops, enabling the thieves to escape.

Confidence artists have victimized a number of tourists. Typically, the person is notified via email of a winning lottery ticket, an inheritance, or other offer, often originating in Africa, which requires his/her assistance and cooperation to conclude. He is asked to forward advance payments for alleged ``official expenses’’ and, often, to come to Amsterdam to conclude the operation. Several people have lost tens of thousands of dollars in such scams. Funds transferred in response to such offers cannot be recovered. Travelers may also contact the Fraud Unit, Amsterdam Police, Police Headquarters, PB 2287, 1000 CG Amsterdam, Netherlands, tel. (31) (20) 559-2380, fax (31) (20) 559-5755.

Suicide rates in ages15-24

(6.8 per 100000 people)

Suicide rates in ages25-34

(10.6)

Suicide rates in ages 35-44

(14.2)

Suicide rates in ages 45-54

(12.7)

Suicide rates in ages 55-64

(12.9)

Suicide rates in ages 65-74

(14.0)

Suicide rates in ages above 75

(15.1)

Total crime victims:

25.2% (1999)

Total crimes:

1,305,635 (2000)

Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence. Per capita figures expressed per 1000 population. In Holland per capita is 79.57 (per 1000 people) that means Holland is 9th on the list while India is 59th .

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Serial killers among us

CHICAGO - From 1900 to 1999, at least 236 serial killers haunted the United States, killing a combined 3,130 persons, said Steven Egger, a police officer turned professor who has written extensively on the topic. And it has been estimated that anywhere from 10 to 500 serial killers are active in the United States at any given time. "There are more serial killers among us than we know. When you start counting serial killers, you're counting the ones we've caught," said Tomas Guillen, a professor at SeattleUniversity and co-author of "The Search for the Green River Killer." Last week's confessions by BTK suspect Dennis Rader and Charles Cullen -- a former nurse who killed as many as 40 patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania -- highlighted the phenomenon. In a June 27 court appearance in Wichita, Kan., Rader described in grisly detail how he strangled, stabbed and shot 10 victims to satisfy his sexual fantasies. Cullen last week admitted to five more deaths. These two men have joined a growing list of notorious killers who have sent chills through the nation and provided ample fodder for filmmakers and novelists. When serial killers are finally caught, it is often a shock to those who know them. Unlike the monsters and recluses of the movies, many serial killers are relatively personable, despite their sometime obsession with sex and death. That's one reason why they are able to evade police. "They're very, very smart -- not intellectually, but very, very streetwise," Mr. Guillen said. "They're very good at disarming people, especially women and children." Serial killers are also able to evade detection because of the very nature of their crimes. Because they rarely know their victims, they don't fall in the traditional circle of murder suspects. And they rarely leave behind evidence that links them to their victims. DNA analysis is changing that. Police had long suspected Gary Leon Ridgway of the nearly 50 Green River killings that terrified Seattle in the 1980s. It was not until they compared a swab of his saliva to evidence found on his victims that police were able to charge him in 2001. Source News World Communications, Inc